Houston- The Centenary men's soccer team fell 7-2 to the University of St. Thomas Celts on Saturday afternoon in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contest and the Gents' season finale at Aveva Stadium.
The Gents finish their season at 2-9-6 overall and 1-6-1 in SCAC play while the Celts improved to 12-1-3 and 5-1-2 in conference play. St. Thomas will next be in action in the SCAC Tournament next weekend in Sherman, Texas.
Centenary took an early 2-0 lead in the match but could not keep pace the remainder of the way with the powerful Celts on their Senior Day. The Gents' first goal came after an ill-advised pass by MF Hamilton Estrada back toward the St. Thomas goal, which Celts' GK Rodrigo Lazo could not handle and it went over his head for an own goal in the 20th minute.
Just over three minutes later, sophomore MF Brennan Amato (Denham Springs, La.) found the net to make it 2-0 as he knocked in a beautiful ball into the left corner of the net past Lazo following a perfect pass from junior F/MF Michael Smith (Baton Rouge, La.). The goal was Amato's second of the season while Smith recorded his first assist this season.
The Celts closed the first half with three goals in a 10-minute span to take a 3-2 lead at the break. St. Thomas scored four goals in the second half to secure the win. The Celts finished with a decisive edge in shots (24-1) and took five corner kicks to three for the Gents. There were 12 fouls called in the match and five cards were issued.
Senior goalkeeper Sami Borchalli (Lafayette, La.) played all 90 minutes in his final career match with the Gents and recorded six saves. He made history last Sunday versus Trinity on Senior Day as he broke two individual program records. He became the all-time career leader in saves (409) in the division III era (2011-present) in program history and recorded a D3-era single-game record with 17 saves. Borchalli, the D3-era leader in career shutouts with 14 and one of the program's most decorated and accomplished players, finishes with 415 saves.
The Celts played a pair of GK's as Lazo started and played the first 81:21 and Leonel Rey relieved him and played the final 8:39. Daniel Castro recorded a hat trick for the Celts and Taty Aleman scored a pair. Gabe Salako scored a goal and had an assist and Juan Gutierrez had three assists.
See the complete Gents' schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/msoc/2022-23/schedule
Admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic contests. Live stats and live video stream are available for all Centenary home contests.
#GoCentenary #CTheOpportunity
